Check out VV Brown
I think she’s great! Love both these songs!
White Air Festival
I went to this last year – it was amazing. So much fun – I wish they had something like that over this side of the world. I found this on you tube and had to post it…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3JEf66wSDA
If you’re in the UK for this anytime I would definitely recommend going. This year its held at [...]
The Cribs & Fleet Foxes
The Cribs new album is out soon – the first one with Johnny Marr former guitarist for The Smiths.
http://www.brooklynvegan.com/archives/2009/08/the_cribs_-_new.html
Also Fleet Foxes are worth an ear- bit of a folk band but are pretty good
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DrQRS40OKNE&feature=related
Charity shop shopping in the UK
Charity shop shopping in the UK is the best. You never know what you will find. Where ever I go, one of my first stops in each town is the local charity shop. For designer bargains you can’t beat London but I’ve found that outside of London you pick up the best bargains. I’ve brought [...]
#22 UVA and interaction design
Britain leads the way when it comes to live interaction design with the likes of UVA and Joel Gething Lewis hailing from the great isle, and young whipper snappers like Toxi deciding to live in amongst the London urban sprawl. When you see their incredible work for people like the chemical brothers, Massive Attack, the [...]
#21 Notting Hill Carnival
For two days in August the streets of Notting Hill come alive with up to two million revelers for one of the best street parties in the world; Notting Hill Carnival. There is the parade of bands and floats that is well worth a watch, or if you are feeling more like just getting a [...]
#20 specialist shopping
Specialist shops are brilliant! The generic high street is taking over, but in the UK I still found lots of amazing people and places that know their stuff inside out. Aside form all the amazing record stores we discovered (see jade’s post about mono) there are all manner of stores each dedicated to a singular [...]
#19: Oakdale Comprehensive School
Those inauspicious buildings above, squat and purposeful, house Oakdale Comprehensive School, an educational institution I’ve never visited but one which has for one reason or another provided the three key cultural forces to emerge from Wales over the last three decades.
Steve Strange, The Manic Street Preachers and Joe Calzaghe. Strange ran a club night, The [...]
#18: Signs on the Tube
This one c/- Amnesty International. I still don’t think I understand it properly.
#17: Rough Trade
Any trip to London for a self-respecting vinyl nerd is incomplete without a trip to Rough Trade records, the shop which gave birth to the label which just owned the early ’80s, putting out masterpieces by the likes of the Young Marble Giants, The Feelies and The Clean. I’ll post clips at the bottom. They are all amazing.
#16 BBC iPlayer
The BBC were one of the first media companies to embrace our new digital world. The iPlayer was one of the first forays by a major content owner into the scary realm of online content provision.
While others were totally freaking out about their content being ’stolen’ by the theiving public, the BBC through caution to [...]
#15 Live Comedy
Last night Peter and I had the pleasure of checking out some proper English comedy at the Laughing Boy Comedy Club at The Oxford in Kentish Town.
Upstairs at the Oxford is a intimate lounge like environment, complete with plush leather couches. It’s like having a few comedians over for a beer.
Last nights line up was [...]
#14 Comic book men
Where ever you go your bound to find the ultimate experience when entering a comic shop!
#13 Basement Jaxx
Personaly I think Basement Jaxx are the #1 reason to love the UK. On record the are great, but live they are amazing. Video after the jump.
#12 The chemical Brothers
The chemical brothers live at the roundhouse, video after the jump
#11: Peaches Geldof’s Tattoos
The Brits really love their tabloids. From a 13 year old father in a devil mask, to Peaches Geldof frolicking on the beach, they are grossly compelling, and a great way to pass the time in airports and hotel lobbies.
Above The Permafrost
Manchester from the ground was frankly, pretty depressing today. We felt the first rain of the journey on our cheeks and the grimly mismatched architecture just seemed kind of vulgar. Not on an Auckland level - none of the modern buildings seemed in imminent danger of collapsing due to abject flimsiness - but after the sublime prettiness of parts of Edinburgh and Liverpool it certainly seemed a step down.
#10: New Zealander’s Who’ve Done Gud.
Rhys Darby. He’s a kiwi chap. In a new movie. Opening soon… The Boat That Rocked.
Looks fun.
David.
#9: The Pub
The pub here is an institution. You can understand why. It is cold, bleak, and often raining. The pub is warm, dry and full of sweet sweet beer. There are people there. Nice people. The amount of pints we have drunk and shit we have talked since we have been here has been awesome. None [...]
#8: Burial
Burial writes some of the most incredible, moody, gritty, emotionally charged music I have ever heard. I didn’t fully understand it until I arrived and experienced this part of the world.
Burial has been my haunting sound track for much of the trip thus far, and I will go home with a toally new appreciation for [...]
#4: Brian and Capes
Capes are amazing. I’d forgotten how amazing until I went on a tour of haunted Edinbugh sites with Brian. His cape tricked me into cultivating a crush on him. In the freezing, misty air a cape cuddle would have been like finding a unicorn in your back garden.
#7: More comedy than you can laugh at
Right, so I feel like since I’ve dedicated a whole post to Peep Show, I have to tell you about this in case you haven’t heard about it.
Fuck empire, imperialism, wealth, brit pop and all that shit. Things like this are why the UK is awesome.
Yeah. That’s right. You can be first to tell your [...]
#5: Peep Show
Right, so of all the cultural references to cross the GB-NZ border Peep Show has got to be the most successful.
Oh what? You’re from New Zealand? You haven’t watched Peep Show before? Okay well that makes you slightly less cool than me but hey, here’s a clip that I like.
Here begins a love affair for [...]
